NATURE’S HAND IN THE INVENTION OF WRITING

Abstract

The evolution of writing from tokens (images) to pictography, syllabary, and
alphabet has remained an important aspect of study for several centuries
(Schmandt-Besserat 2014, The Evolution of Writing. International Encyclopedia
of Social and Behavioral Sciences. ed. James Wright, Amsterdam: Elsevier).
Understanding the phenomena that drives change in a writing system can
showcase differences across diverse cultures around the world. Selected graphemes
from three ancient writing systems—Mayan hieroglyphs, Egyptian hieroglyphs,
and Shang China’s oracle bone script—demonstrate how ancient peoples based
the characters of their writing systems on features from their physical environment
and culture. Inventors of these writing systems across ancient civilizations drew
upon elements in their physical environment to create visual representations of
language, which became characters in their writing systems. Natural environments
create constraints within which human cultures develop. Furthermore, culture
itself influences the visual appearance of writing, so that writing systems reflect
both their environment and culture in form and style.